Each of us has our rituals for drinking tea. Whether alone or with others, the mug, the mini teapot or the matcha whisk in hand, the possibilities for preparing tea and the moments we agree to enjoy it are endless. We can therefore wonder if all our tea drinking habits have an impact on our health?
The art of making tea
There are many ways to make tea. They depend on the tea you choose and your personal taste. The most common infusion is the Western infusion. It uses few leaves, brewed for a long time in a large volume of water never exceeding 90°C. Conversely, the repeated infusion known as Gong Fu Cha requires a sometimes boiling water and is made in small volumes with many leaves. The infusions are much shorter, which makes it possible to re-infuse the tea several times and obtain a more concentrated liquor.
From rinsing the leaves to multiple infusions
During a Gong Fu Cha infusion, the leaves are quickly rinsed a first time before infusing the leaves to allow a first hydration. This rinsing step has another advantage. In a publication released in 2018, researchers found that rinsing the leaves of green tea, oolong tea and black tea for at least 5 seconds reduced the levels of certain pesticides found in the infusion by 5 to 15. This is enough to convince you to always rinse your tea, whether it is loose or in bags!
Moreover, the publication does not report any negative impact of rinsing on the quality of the infusions, especially on the infusion of the main antioxidants infused such as catechin, caffeine and theobromine (a bitter compound also found in chocolate). If the rinsing step of the tea leaves does not generate significant losses of molecules of therapeutic interest, one may wonder if the multiple infusions release more antioxidant molecules?
Yang and his collaborators have made green, black and oolong tea infusions based on the model of the Gong Fu Cha infusion and have compared them to the Western infusion. Their results indicate that the Gong Fu Cha infusion provides slightly more gallic acid, catechins and caffeine than the Western infusion. This may explain why Gong Fu Cha produces liquors with a slightly stronger taste than a Western infusion, as these molecules contribute to the taste of the tea.
The psychological importance of planning your tea moment
An individual's health does not only concern the proper functioning of the body, mental health has a definite impact on the major biological functions. Before the 2000s, some researchers were interested in the rituals of tea preparation and particularly the tea ceremony in Japan. The tea ceremony in Japan consists of performing a certain sequence of gestures, almost choreographed, to prepare Matcha tea. The preparation of this tea is carried out in a calm and ritualized manner. In a short scientific review dating from 1996, researchers were interested in stress management through the tea ceremony. Among the investigative work already carried out, they found that the ritualization of tea drinking helped to focus attention on a calm and soothing task. Focusing on the task will strengthen the perception of the body in the space and the perception of the surrounding elements. Some people also speak of "appreciation of beauty". In other words, the person performing the tea ceremony would be more serene and develop a better perception of their surroundings.
The importance of the rituals and the vision given to them are powerful mood modulators. In an atypical publication from 2013, researchers made 189 people drink oolong tea (600 mL) on a daily basis. In one group of people, the tea was treated spiritually by a Buddhist monk. In this group, and excluding the placebo effect (effect obtained without treatment. The person is confident that he or she has had the treatment), the general mental and emotional state seems better compared to the group who drank the tea alone.
Excluding the spirituality around tea, research was carried out on the daily life of nurses who had a tea break in the morning for 3 months every day. In relation to the testimonies collected from the nurses, several things stand out. It would seem that the daily tea break creates a short period of rest, necessary to balance the stress generated by their work and the personal break. In addition, the fact that these nurses gathered at the same point each day allowed them to ritualize their interactions and strengthened their group cohesion.
How and when you prepare your tea has an impact on your health. A repeated infusion called Gong Fu Cha would allow to obtain a liquor richer in antioxidant molecules, which could be interesting to consider for future studies on tea and health. Moreover, the context of tea consumption (work break, ceremony) and personal relationship to tea are criteria that will modulate stress and behavior. Thus, a calm, ritualized and familiar tea drinking environment would help to stabilize mood and reduce stress.
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